Indigenous Ability

  Let us begin with an extract from Josey Wales creator, Forest Carter’s, novel The Vengeance Trail of Josey Wales. This extract was Carter’s explanation for Wales’ background. THE MOUNTAIN CODE . “ The Code was as necessary to survival on the lean soil of mountains, as it had been on the rock ground of Scotland and Wales. Clannish people. Outside governments erected by people of kindlier land, of wealth, of power, made no allowance for the scrabbler. “As a man had no coin, his coin was his word. His loyalty, his bond. He was the rebel of establishment, born in this environment. To injure one to whom he was obliged was personal; more, it was blasphemy. The Code, a religion without catechism, having no chronicler of words to explain or to offer apologia. “Bone-deep feuds were the result. War to the knife. Seldom if ever over land, or money, or possessions. But injury to the Code meant---WAR! “Marrowed in the bone, singing in the blood, the Code was brought to the mountai...

  [This offering couples well with the prior Apache Awareness Pop Quiz .] Strange as it may seem, there is an intriguing overlap between the, so-called, “artistic eye,” and the Indigenous Warrior concept of “Always Seeing.” [ Suakhet’u .] ·         Always Seeing can also be gussied up to the tactical jargon of “Always Awareness.” ·         Always Awareness, to my mind, surpasses the weak tactical sister, and far-more touted “situational awareness” which is, by definition, situational, that is, used upon occasion. ·         “Always Seeing” is just that, alive and awake to The ALL of the Wide World Before Us, the Heavens Above Us, and the Flora and Fauna Around Us. [Those curious two-footed Fauna we call humans, included.] ·         Situational Awareness by dint of being a cortisol activated bottom-up neural process can not be elevat...

  “You cannot see what you do not see .”—Apache Saying Remember that saying; we’ll come back to it. ONE —From where you sit right now, which way is West? No apps, no nada, answer the question. TWO —What is today’s prevailing wind? Does it differ from yesterdays? If so, what does it predict for today? THREE —What was/were your loved one[s] wearing as they walked out the door today? “ You cannot recall what you never saw .” Why the Answers Matter ONE —From where you sit right now, which way is West? No apps, no nada, answer the question. [Imagine this scenario.] 911 : 911, what’s your emergency? You : I’m on Oakhurst Street and I just saw a man jerk a young girl into a pick-up truck and take off. 911 : On Oakhurst? Which way are they headed? You : Um…towards that place that sells falafel, uh, you know towards the Interstate. 911 : Which Interstate? Do you mean I-75 or I-40? [Compared to…] 911 : 911, what’s your emergency? You: I’m on Oakhurst S...

  Let’s talk street-wrestling, alley grappling, urban scufflin’ but… Let’s forget what the word “wrestling” implies in today’s parlance. Let’s use a formerly more common word—grappling. Today, grappling and wrestling are used interchangeably, whereas formerly, in a time where most were familiar with whaling, the fishing industry, dock work, stevedore work, freighting, bale-work and numerous other “blue collar” occupations pre-labor saving devices from cranes, to, hell, even dollies to move loads. In these times a vast array of designated tools to grab, pinch, lever, and handle loads from Point A to Point B were in use and not in a mere one or two professions. The tools may go by many names from the cotton-freighter’s baling tongs to the fireman’s peavey, the logger’s cant hooks, to the fisherman’s and whaler’s grappling hooks. To grapple was to get hooks in with mechanical leverage and get the job done. To wrestle was the sportive aspect of mano y mano ; to grapple, w...